Wide receiver Rishard Matthews could see plenty of snaps in the slot after Brandon Gibson's reported season-ending knee injury.

DAVIE — At best, Brandon Gibson is out for a game. At worst, he'll miss the remainder of the season. In either case second-year wide receiver Rishard Matthews will assume a more prominent role starting Thursday night against the Bengals.

Gibson according to the NFL Network was scheduled to undergo knee surgery to repair a torn patella tendon suffered in Sunday's loss at New England. One of three healthy receivers on the field for the better part of three quarters, Matthews caught three passes for 30 yards.

The Dolphins likely will address their receiving depth before Thursday, but Matthews appears poised for significant playing time. That it could come in the slot is somewhat of a surprise to offensive coordinator Mike Sherman.

"Gibson is a special player," Sherman said. "There's no question about that, but I think Matthews has really improved a lot in the last year. I never thought he'd end up being an inside receiver, but he's really developed as an outside and inside received as has Gibson."

Asked if he would be comfortable with Matthews as his primary slot man, Sherman added: "If he has to assume that role, whoever we get there I'm going to be comfortable with. Those are our guys. I have a lot of confidence in [Matthews]."

Matthews has one career start under his belt (last Dec. 30 at New England). He's appeared in all seven games this season, making half of his eight catches in the Sept. 22 win over the Falcons.

Both Philbin and Sherman took exception to the suggestion the Dolphins abandoned what was an effective first-half running game. The Patriots own the league's second worst run defense and the Dolphins took advantage, rushing 22 times for 103 yards.

During a scoreless second half, the Dolphins ran nine times for 53 yards.

"I don't know that we went totally away from the run," Philbin said. "We had some other things in the plan we felt were good that we wanted to get to and we wanted to use. We had some effectiveness utilizing them early in the game and early in the second half."

Sherman pointed to the game circumstances prompting the Dolphins to take to the air almost exclusively. The Dolphins got the ball down 10 with 7:14 to play and quarterback Ryan Tannehill took the snap out of the shotgun in 13 consecutive plays during a drive that culminated with a blocked field goal.

"We were in a two-minute mode trying to get caught up," Sherman said. "I felt like we had good balance throughout the game."

Wake coming on?

The numbers seem to suggest otherwise, but defensive end Cameron Wake in Kevin Coyle's view is just about back. Wake suffered a knee injury in Week 3 against the Falcons. In three starts since he's totaled three tackles and no sacks.

"He's still getting stronger every week," said Coyle, the Dolphins' defensive coordinator.

"He's getting stronger even though the statistics may not indicate he's having as big an impact as he usually does. I feel good that we're on the verge of Cam getting back to himself and we're going to see some great things here as we move on through the rest of the season."